Carl E. Akeley
At Bay, 1925
H. 15 1/2 in. x W. 9 in. x L. 18 1/2 in.
Carl Akeley, innovative taxidermist and photographer,
was also a skilled sculptor. Born on a farm outside Rochester,
New York, Akeley got a job when he was seventeen at Ward's
Natural Science Establishment in Rochester. Appalled by
the antiquated system of taxidermy, in which birds and
animals were stuffed with rags and wood shavings, Akeley
set out to make improvements. Working as an associate
curator at the American Museum of Natural History, in
1909 he began to model clay maquettes to create accurate
life-sized animal dioramas. In the process, he began to
revolutionize the practice of taxidermy. His firsthand
knowledge of animal behavior and anatomy, gathered during
African travels for the museum, enabled him to produce
several sensitive and realistic sculptures of animals.
Encouraged by financier J. P. Morgan and sculptor Alexander
Proctor, he cast one of the clay groups into bronze in
1913. That first work was The Wounded Comrade.
Akeley mentored important wildlife sculptors such as James
L. Clark, Robert Rockwell, and Louis Jonas. Although he
is well known, Akeley’s work is not widely held
because it is rare— he did not create many sculptures
before his death in 1926, while on a wildlife expedition
to the Congo.